120 Tue Witson BULLETIN—NO. 15. 
and is situated between the Ottawa-Montreal branch of 
the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk railways. There is 
farming country all around, terminating in low ridges or 
rounded bluffs at the margin of the bog, showing plainly its 
lacustrine origin. Some of these ridges in fact penetrate into 
the bog from the western end or from the sides, and here and 
there in the bog are elevations of rock and solid earth, evi- 
dently islands of a former time. Into this bog the writer 
has made incursions in June, July and August of nearly 
every summer during the six years of his residence here. One 
cannot go much before June, as the water is then too deep; 
and, as the breeding species of birds have then not yet settled 
down, it would not be so profitable. 
Like most, if not all peat bogs, also this one has a zone or 
fringe of quite different appearance than the bog itself. It is 
a fringe of typical s7vamp, not bog, with much — uncomfort- 
ably much, visible water. This fringe of swamp, in most 
places only twenty-five to fifty feet in width, is effectual in 
keeping out all but the most ardent naturalists. Here we find 
the typical swamp flora, alder, cat-tail, poplar, bog-bean, 
Lysimachia thyrsiflora, etc. The typical birds of this sec- 
tion are, the Red-winged Blackbird, with a few Bronzed 
Grackles mixed in, also the Swamp Sparrow, Yellow War- 
bler and in some of the poplar stands is found the Nashville 
Warbler. Now and then a Bittern or even a Great Blue 
Heron is made to rise and heavily wing away. Also Soras 
and Virginia Rails are found in here, as well as a few loudly 
rasping, scolding Short-billed Marsh Wrens (Cuistothorus 
stellaris). Of these the Yellow-throat and Nashville War- 
bler are also found in the bog proper. 
The appearance of the bog is such as to at once arouse at- 
tention. The vegetation is so different from that of any 
other kind of territory, that one is almost forced to under- 
stand that the biological conditions obtaining here are mark- 
edly different from those of most other places. The covering 
underneath, into which the foot sinks deeply, consists of 
sphagnum moss, one of the characteristic plants of the peat 
